Anthony Mills chronicles toxic masculinity in the Deep South on ‘trouble’

Anthony Mills has released new single ‘trouble’. The track is taken from his album Blue Collar Work Ethic. With a background in hip-hop and production, Anthony was persuaded forget these styles to try singing in the style of his homeland by producer David Belafonte. When Anthony realised that this was fundamentally a storytelling genre, he knew it was the right approach for his songs.

Mills found laying out his family’s history liberating, while at times bringing him to tears in the studio. A great grandchild of the industrial revolution, his family migrated from Lake Charles, Louisiana to Akron, laying roots in Flint and Detroit, Michigan along the way. He tells his family’s story with elements of Americana, Blues and old plantation songs to express the blue-collar inertia that runs through his veins.

Tackling Southern American masculinity, Mills tells us ‘trouble’ is “all about showing and proving. The saying ‘don’t start none won’t be none’ echoes through the track”.